DISCLAIMER – I don't own anything except a beat up Volvo station wagon.

I'd like to tell you that on that day, when I was eight, I changed the world. I remembered everything from my past life that helped us defeat the Titans and I became the savior of the world and so on and so forth. That didn't happen though.

Instead I spent three weeks hiding in a rather nice closet crying. I would've stayed there longer, because if they can't see you they can't eat you right? I was called for though. I might be a child of eight years dead but the King's law applies to everyone and when he summons, you better go. I pulled together my remaining dignity and all the regal bearing I had learned in this new life and let myself be escorted.

The palace was a huge gothic structure, and now that I understood how real it all was I could appreciate it. My father took his appointments in the main hall and his guests in a private study. I had only been in the main hall once, when about four years I ago I had burst in their all full of happiness and laughter completely oblivious to what had probably been a rather important meeting. The world apparently didn't revolve around flighty little girls, I could tell because I had received a few haughty looks, a quick dismissal and more determined minder.

His private study though, I was entertained there usually once a week. It was his private library of forbidden books, with the addition of a simple wooden table and a few chairs. I say forbidden because no one but my father was allowed to so much as touch them, and of course myself when I was very young and he believed I couldn't read. Peeking through the door now though I could see he wasn't alone, with him at a table set for three was Commander Erwin Smith. I took a deep breath, fussed over my dress one last time and stepped in with my escort behind me.

"Father," I said with the appropriate curtsey before turning to the Commander who had stood to attention with my arrival. "Commander." I addressed him with a smaller curtsey.

"Lady Adelena," he said with a bow before taking my hand and escorting me to my seat at the table, "it is a pleasure to dine with you." I sat as gracefully as I could manage, which wasn't very and waited on my father.

My father... just three weeks ago I had thought him to be God himself. He wasn't a young man, but it was hard to tell if it was age or circumstance that made him look so old. I sometimes heard whispers that I wasn't his first child, and my distant mother not his first wife... there had been others before me who had died. I wondered now about what that meant, if this truly was a real kingdom of flesh and blood people then one day my father would die and one of his children would succeed him. Could a girl take the throne here or would it go to my infant brother? I had never before considered it.

"Lena," my father said turning his gaze away from his books and towards me, 'it has been three weeks since you last came to see me."

Three weeks of terror, the same overwhelming feeling that bordered on the edges of my mind even now. The knowledge that just beyond wall Maria was an entire world filled with giants whose only desire was to consume humans, humans like me... well that was a bit much for anyone to take on so suddenly. I fallen straight from paradise into the abyss.

"I apologize father." I replied inclining my head with respect. I might be upset, I might not like that he wasn't everything I had thought him to be... but he was still my father and my king, I would give him the respect he deserved.

"I inquired after you," He said straightening up and taking on a more official bearing, "I heard someone told you stories. Stories about Titans."

I used the arrival of my father's butler serving lunch as an excuse for silence. No one had told me anything about the Titans. In all my memory no one had ever mentioned the Titans to me, not ever. Was I not supposed to know about them? I had worked it out after seeing Erwin in the hallway... Erwin with his blase face who was dining with my father and I... Oh... Did he think Erwin had told me? Or perhaps someone had said as much to him?

"Who has been telling you stories Lena?" He asked more seriously.

I looked at his wrinkled old face and I didn't want to lie to him. I remembered the fat pig living in the castle from the show... my father wasn't like that, he was a hard man but a good one. I could tell that he did love me. What could I tell him though? That his daughter was a lost soul and not really his child at all? No, it would have to be the lie.

"Adelena, who has told you stories?" He repeated more firmly glancing just momentarily at Erwin. I couldn't know for sure what that look meant, and though I recalled Erwin being a fair terrible leader I couldn't let him take the fall for me.

"No one Papa. No one told me... I was not doing as I was supposed to. I was sneaking in the corridors, though I know I am not allowed, I saw the Commander and I heard voices in the passage. They were talking about him, they said that that Titans ate his soldiers." I held up a little tomato on my fork and leveled it with my eye. I was the Titan and the tomato was me... this would be my next death.

"And what did you hear about Titans Lena?" My father asked, more gently this time. I had admitted my crime already, he was always much softer if you admitted your guilt. A lesson my young sisters had yet to learn.

I pushed my speared tomato forward to take the spotlight. "I learned that I am this tomato, and a Titan will eat me the same way I eat it." I said, holding my voice as steady as I could. I put the tomato into my mouth whole and bit down, the juice dribbled down my chin. My father flinched and Erwins expression shifted just momentarily to something I didn't recognize.

"Lena.." My father started, his voice regretful. "No Titan is going to eat you."

"But they already ate us Papa. I think they've been eating me for a long time, only I didn't know until now." I said wiping away the pseudo blood from my mouth my with a napkin.

"Did they?" He asked.

"Of course Papa. What is a king with no one to rule? Who is a princess with no people? When they ate Commander Erwin's soldiers, didn't they eat us also?" I answered, one hand gesturing behind me to his window, a perfect view of all three great walls from so high above them.

"When did you start concerning yourself with these things? These are not things for a child to dwell upon." He replied with a regretful affection. These were not things he had intended me to cry over.

"It's okay Papa." I said straightening myself up to mimic his posture as I always had, when I had thought him a god to be imitated in every action. "I'm glad I know now. Isn't it always better to know?"

"I wish you didn't have to know Lena. A beautiful girl like you shouldn't have to be afraid." He said placing one hand gently on my head and running his hand through my hair.

I couldn't deny that, I was afraid. It could be worse though, the traitorous thought ran through my mind over and over.. at least I was born inside wall Sina. When the Titans came.. they had broken Maria and Rosa, but Sina was still standing. Stohess had been badly damaged... but I lived in Utopia not in Stohess. I reached out and gripped my father's hand tightly for just a moment, it wasn't his fault I had been born into this life. This.. whatever this was had happened before his time, he had been born into this prison just as I had been.

I nodded at Erwin who had sat silently watching throughout. "I am sorry for your loss Commander. I hope you can accept my apology on behalf of those within these walls. Some may have spoken of those who passed with less respect or gentleness than they ought, for that I am sorry. I apologize for myself as well, my childish behaviour did not honor their deaths."

"There is nothing childish in fearing such monsters my lady." Erwin replied seriously.

That was true enough, it was quite normal to be afraid of monsters... but I was already dead, had been for eight years going on nine, I had already met the greatest foe and defeated death.

"You are quite safe here Lena. The walls have protected us for a hundred years, and there are three great walls between you and them and of course all the soldiers are here to protect you as well." Father suddenly grinned widely, "In fact that's why Commander Erwin came to dine with us today. He's offered to have some of the scouting legion show you how they use their 3D maneuver gear."

Erwin must have been a master poker player because his blase expression didn't shift at all, even though I knew my father well enough to know that Erwin had made no such offer. I would accept it regardless of whether or not it was genuine... with that gear they could practically fly and that was something worth seeing. "I would be very grateful for the opportunity to view a demonstration Commander Erwin." I said inclining my head politely in gratitude.

"Excellent!" My father boomed happily, "I will have her escorted down in the morning."

And that was that. I was going to see the Scouting Legion perform on the morrow. Maybe this could be a Utopia for me... I'd just have to work out a way of avoiding those Titans... maybe reinforcing the gate on wall Sina.